The Booth Conundrum
by lightmylumiere
Summary: House softened by some girl scouts and a cute good act of kindness? It's Huddy at the end of the day, my pretty little one-shot. R&R please.


*Cuddy and cookies. People seem to like that.

What about House and Girl Scout cookies! Couldn't we see House being a softie and chipping in to the worthy cause of girls planning a camping trip?

I'm a girl scout of nine years. I went to New Zealand and Australia with the scouts this summer. I have earned my bronze and my silver, and I am working on my gold award. I have sold two hundred boxes of cookies and am using the money for our troop to go to Hawaii. We do a lot more than people think we can. :)

Review please. It's House mostly, but slight Huddy at the end of the day.*

The Booth Conundrum

There were several of them, dozens even. Crowding around him, that was almost like a dream. He always dreamed of women crowding around him. But no, these weren't women. They were girls. They were business girls. And they were there on a mission.

"Mr. House, would you like to buy some Girl Scout Cookies?" Said a little freckle-faced brunette. Her vest was ironed, he could tell by how firmly pressed it was, a Kelly green decorated in her hundreds of badges. They all had on ironed vests over their white collared shirts and khaki skirts.

He looked down at her. "Um..." He gripped his cane tightly as he eyed each box on it's own. Green, blue, red, purple, orange, yellow, pink and teal. But what to choose? "What do you suggest?"

A blonde bounced up and whipped her waist length hair back over her shoulders. "Well, Terry-" the freckled brunette grinned at the sound of her own name. "her favorite is the Trefoils." She gestured to the blue box. "But Amy-" Amy, piped up and blushed to where her cheeks were redder than her fiery hair. "prefers the Thin Mints." Green box. "Lily Abrams-" One of the two blondes, the one that wasn't talking, peered up from the book in her grip and waved at House. "likes the Tagalongs, they taste great in the freezer." There was only one other girl who hadn't spoken. She was a dark-skinned dark-haired girl with two pigtails tied with green ribbons. "And Peggy likes the Samoas. They're great... if you like coconut."

"And what do you like?" House asked, not caring about the answer but thought it may help him decide.

"I, I'm Candace, and I don't have a favorite. I like them all!" She twirled in her own glee.

"So what about the teal, the pink, the orange, and the yellow?"

"Teal is Dulce de Leche, it's caramel chip and my mom says it's good with coffee." Terry started. "But she wouldn't let me try it with coffee, she says I'm not old enough yet."

"Thank U Berry Munch is a great gift..." Peggy continued.

"If you don't like who you're giving it to." Lily quickly snapped.

"Do-Si-Dos are orange. They taste like peanut butter crackers, so they're not on the best-seller list." Amy continued.

"And yellow is lemon flavored." Candace finished.

House pondered for a moment. It was a matter of how much money was in his pocket. "How much is eight boxes?" He asked, hoping the elementary school-aged girls could do the simple multiplication problem.

"28 dollars exactly." Peggy didn't miss a beat with her answer. This pleased House immensely.

"One of each. Keep the change." He handed Candace thirty dollars, which she quickly tucked in the cash box.

"Box or bag?" Terry started pulling his order.

"Box." Then suddenly he had a brilliant idea. "Could you actually tape the box shut?"

"Um... sure?" Candace wasn't used to the obscene question. But she wasn't used to old guys with canes caring about girls' opinions on cookies, either. She ran the tape across the top of the box.

"Thank you. And... good luck on the whole cookie thing." He started away.

"Don't you care what we're doing with the money?" One of the girls called out after him.

"Nope. Got lives to save." But none of them heard his quiet response. His head was cooking up a scheme. And he wasn't going to sleep in the clinic until it was all done.

...

Scissors, ribbon and tape all on House's desk. The curtains were shut tightly, and if you had heard the faintest scream from anywhere down that hall you would've sworn it was him. He wouldn't even let Wilson or his lackeys in, and that was saying something.

House took a Post-it pad from his desk of toys and got to writing with his red fine-tipped sharpie. His message was light on his heart, if anyone would witness they would say he was... caring.

...

On his desk was a box of cookies in a vibrant shade of Kelly green. Thin Mints, his favorite. With a yellow sticky note on it. "Sorry I stole these from you last year. Enjoy your own box." He couldn't believe his own eyes. Was this a HOUSE apology? It couldn't be.

Cameron saw her name on a sticky noted teal box. Mmm, caramel; she thought to herself. "Pair with your coffee and keep being your own ray of sunshine." But who would pay her a compliment like that?

Chase was equally befuddled by the purple box in front of him. "Well, wombat, enjoy a well-deserved treat." Only one person called him Wombat. And it couldn't be...

An orange box with Foreman's name. "Be careful when you call your boss an ass, it bites you back in your own." Oh, his crazy boss. A cheating lying idiot and yes an ass. But a caring ass if you think twice.

There was a cookie box on Cuddy's desk when she walked into her office from lunch. It was a red box, a Tagalongs box. On it was a pretty little bow, and a pink sticky note. "Something a great person deserves is something sweet." Sounded like it was stolen from a fortune cookie, but it was from the secret romantic. House.

...

"House, why were there cookies on my desk?" Cuddy asked, strutting in in those tall heels of hers.

"They're your favorite kind aren't they?" The powdered sugar came all over his chin as he bit into his next cookie.

"Yes they are."

"Then why are you complaining?"

"I'm not..." She saw him licking the powdered sugar off his chin. "And what are you eating?"

"What, I SHARED."

"Those are the lemons."

"Yeah." He said nonchalantly.

"You hate lemons. Why are you eating lemon cookies?"

"People say I'm sour. These are sour. My PERFECT match." He said sarcastically, his lips puckering at the sour flavor.

"Don't be so hard on yourself." She warned. "You've been softened, and you deserve a treat." She held up the box of Tagalongs.

"Is it you or the cookies?" He joked. Cuddy even chuckled at this.

"Could be both." He grinned and invited her to sit in his chair, either in his lap or squishing both of them into it. She didn't sit, but he stood and followed her down the hall and into his office. His thoughts filled his heads, no words required. "The cookies were a nice touch, you hopeless romantic."

"Hopeless? No. Romantic? Depends." He bent down and kissed her lips slowly, even with the traces of lemony powdered sugar on them, smearing the white onto her pink lipstick.

"You're such a softie." She replied, licking off the powdered sugar on her lips.

"We should have conversations like this more often."

"You should show your caring side more often." She teased. And it was as though everything was perfect, all thanks to their Girl Scout Cookie conundrum.


End file.
